The Irish standard., 1887-12-31
4. cHRlS lS.TMAss SERMON
Why Our Saviour Demands Our Love
An Eloquent Sermon by Father
O'Gornan at the st. Paul
Cathedral.

O. German at the st. Paul
Cathedral.
The sermon by Father O'Gorman at
the ST. Paul Cathedral on Chrjatmas
Day drew out a large congregation,
The principal points are given as
follows:
All men are equal at birth and
death. Our coming into the world and
our going out is the same for all,
Whatever inequalities may mark the
lives of men between these two terms
are brought with them to deadlock.
Birth msans that We come out OF the
unknown, the nothing, to take our
place for @ few moments on the stage
Of the world, and death is our exit lnJo
a future Of yhicl, we know only that it
is an everlasting realty, qualified and
conditioned BY QUE performance here.
So it is with us. But there has been
One the birth and death Of whom have
taken him out the dead level OF the
race, and proven Kim to be mors than
man. The wander ef His birth is not
that He WAS born poor; poverty is the
uurse that Aas received most mon as
they come into this world. Nor is it
ahat songs greeted Ills coming reioic-
ing has hovered ovef our cradle, too,
even though the rejoicing were only the
snnile OF the weeping mother nor is
that peasant and king, shepherd and
wise n,a.a ola homage to the aev~born
babe, such visiting may baye the SHARE
OF tha children of others. children OF
men. This, brsthren, is the wonder,
The cxclnaiye privilege of His birth
Chat Is was besore being born. Aud
His deathy The strangeness Of His
death is not the fact itself OF dying, ncr
that it CAMS to pasa IN the heyday OF
His manhood, nor tflat it was violent,
cruel, unjust; OF such manner has been
ale death Of 1aany q man: but this is
si,a wondsr OF it--that after His death
Els lived. and lives still,
'"I'his influence OF Christ over the III
:eliecu ttegefors, over the sclence, art,
literature and civilization OF the worlS,
is az aspect Of the present subject to
which refer only in passing; not tf'aG
it does net bear n1ost powerfully On the
conclusion, hut because I wish to draw
your atsant1on and give the time at zny
disposal to another aspect Of the sub
ject which is m ore in harmony with
the, spirit ct tilis feayt. / mean tna
RE:IG& OF GHNisT
iG the a4feetions Of mankind. We ask
anGi receive love frern a few only. Our
childhood expands undsr the general
warrutas CT tho ioye O. pazsnts i'll The
sweet atmosphere of brotherly a2fec~
zion. III youth We asek out among the
companions 1T our study and play, 81
few souls that can ay0patl,izs wials
aurs, and Thus are bern tle friendships
CT aarlY years, sbe memory of which is
balm and psrfunse waited from ssaf,
spgingtlEma Of innocence to the win1ry
evening Of old age. AS man aacsnds
30 The full poontlde OF lils, a fsrcer
Came glows within him and centers ou
one side being chosen above others.
But within faw hours it wanes, and
as hs declines toward the setting OF
life, the qulster and deeper sentiment
OF paternity casts over physical weak
ness it's Buhduing shadow and crowns
Old ags with its mellower glories, such
is mans history in love. 1t lasts not;
its objects are few at any period Of his
existence. Not such the. love which
Christ has asked and has received.
HE asks to be loved above all more
than all otbers, WITH the whole heart.
tile whole 1ni,,d, the strongest, the most
generous love; a love that woos and
wins from every pleasure that goes unto
the testimony of bloed;a lcve before
which all others pale, or rather il.
which ali others are merged, purified
and made divine. The Child must love
him 1nore than father or mother, the
parent must lovs h,m more than Child.
May, he claims the right to take pie
cedence over the deepest human love.
'Who is he, where lsh who puts for
ward such exactions2 All! he knows
little of the heart OF man if he knows
not that the great feeder Of love is PRES
ence, and that the ai,7ept are easily for
gotten. Granted that for awhile the re-
grets and tears OF a faithful few follow
us to the grave. Time, the great soother
OF sorrows. stills the regrets and dries
the tears, and, at any rate. those who
weep for US are soon laid to rest by our
side, and then lover and loved are
equally forgotten, gone from the mem
ory OF the generations that come after,
obliterated like the waves Of the surf
toppling over one another and wiping
one another away ON the beach. Z es,
SO it is, go it has been with one excep.
ton. There is one gone from the world